The Most Effective Greeter

Pastors, we must remember that the

most effective greeter in the church is us.

We set the tone and are the catalyst

for greeting. Additionally, it is not just

about greeting the guests, but greeting

the members as well. I have never seen a

church that was good at greeting who

had a pastor who wasn't. 

Keeping Our Focus on Christ

There is an old adage in sports, and it is "Keep your eye on the ball!" This is the first fundamental in all of sports, because the game revolves around the ball, and each player has responsibilities relative to their position to the ball. So if a player loses track of the ball, he cannot and will not function properly. This seems relatively simple; but because it is simple, it easy to get sidetracked into putting your attention on all the other activities or movements that are going on around the ball so that the ball no longer has your attention.

There is a similar fundamental in the life of the church in that the life of the church revolves around Jesus Christ, and the minute any church takes its eyes off of Christ, removes its focus from Christ, and Christ ceases to be its priority, then it ceases to function properly even though it might be generating a lot of activity. If you read through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, what you will see as a common thread among the churches that were chastised is that, in some fashion, they had taken their focus off of Christ and put it somewhere else.

This is what Paul warned the Corinthian church about in II Corinthians 10:3 "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." This deception that takes a church's eyes off of Christ is a common, but effective tactic of the enemy; and he deceives us with many churchy, well meaning, feel good, even popular/missional du jour type of things; and it is so easy to be led astray by these things. Because of this, we must be vigilant and fight tenaciously to keep our eyes and our focus upon Jesus Christ and keep Him central to all that we are and do.

We must make sure that Christ is the center of our attention and the focus of our devotion. This is fundamental to all that we do as a church. So, just as good sports teams do, let us make sure that we are spending time focusing on the fundamentals, really The Fundamental, so that what we do as a church will be pleasing to the Lord; and our lampstand will not only remain in place, but its light will shine brightly.

Pressing On and Taking Hold

Not that I have already obtained it

or have already become perfect,

but I press on so that I may lay hold

of that for which also I was laid hold

of by Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12

"It is the Word of Christ, loved, lived in,

abiding in us, becoming through obedience

and action part of our being, that makes us

one with Christ, that fits us spiritually for

touching, for taking hold of God."

Andrew Murray

quoted in

Transforming Prayer

by Daniel Henderson

Page 110

It is also this same abiding in the Word of Christ that is the foundation behind the promise found in Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." A heart that delights itself in the Lord is a heart that delights itself in His Word. If you do not delight yourself in His written word, you will not delight yourself in His Living Word...the Word that became flesh, the embodiment of the Word.

It is only to the extent that we abide in His written word that we also abide in Him. Jeremiah 15:16a tells us this, "Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart..." The Lord tells us in John 15:10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." 

We press on and take hold by abiding in His word. If we are abiding in His word, then we automatically will be living in obedience to that word. This is the key to the abundant spiritual life, to a close fellowship with the Father and the Son, and is a marker of our love for Him; as we see in John 14:21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." It is those who love and obey to whom Jesus will disclose Himself; and it is when we press on in loving and obeying that we touch and take hold of God.